


i'd fight for our entire kingdom (but i would only die for you)

by greekdemigod



Category: Dishonored (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-10-19
Updated: 2016-10-26
Packaged: 2018-08-23 10:23:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8324203
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/greekdemigod/pseuds/greekdemigod
Summary: A collection of writings exploring Jessamine and Emily Kaldwin's relationship, life at court, and the ever present Lord Protector.[Accepting requests.]





	1. empress jessamine kaldwin reflects on the poor choice of white outfits for her daughter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is just a short little thing to start off the collection, because I had to break myself back into writing for this fandom.
> 
> Hope you enjoy!

When Jessamine Kaldwin walks in her gardens, through Dunwall Tower, around in her city she looks through the eyes of the Empress of the Isles. She sees all the work that she still has to do, there where her kingdom needs improvements, all the people that count on her to be just but that also blame her for their own shortcomings in life.

But she also sees Emily, her wildfire of a daughter, who _doesn't_ see the world through any lens at all.

It’s liberating to go on walks with her daughter and see how the ten-year-old interacts with the world. Emily still finds miracles in the smallest things, hungers for evermore stories. The people love her because she is kind and brave and curious. It doesn’t matter if they’re a fisherman or a seamstress, she has thousands of questions and everyone finds her inquisitiveness endearing.

But it’s also exhausting to go on walks with Emily. There is no stopping her when she has her mind set on something, whether that be asking that one person one or another question or taking another route and wind up in a whole different district of the city.

Jessamine looks away for no more than a few seconds, but is rewarded with an ominous-sounding splash for it. “Emily!” is out of her mouth, short and stern, before she has even fully taken in the sight.

Because of course her daughter finds the one puddle that hasn’t seeped into the ground yet, and of course splashes of grey and brown now track across her pristinely white outfit.

Well, there is a point to be made about giving children white outfits, even if they’re the crown princess of the empire.

Emily’s smile falters instantly. She’s stubborn and proud, but she’s also a mommy’s girl and disappointing her mother mortifies her. Jessamine can see as much when dark eyes, so much like Corvo’s, cloud with regret and fear and doubt and the beginnings of tears.

And that, in turn, melts Jessamine right down to the girl she once was, before she had been forced to grow up and grow into this role.

“May you never grow too old to enjoy jumping in puddles,” she whispers to herself, offering her daughter a smile and a tired, amused shake of her head. Emily brightens just as quickly as she dimmed and, now that she has gotten approval, jumps around in place, whipping the dirty rain water up along her legs, as high as a few drops spattering across her cheeks.

“Will _you_ read me a story while I bathe today, Mother?” Emily asks when she finally joins her mother again in the last few steps of their walk before they are ushered past guards and into the tower again.

She wants to. Jessamine misses the times when the people around her gave her some more leeway to be with her daughter, when she could read Emily stories and look at her while she drew and teach her to dance herself. But she can’t. There are important documents and people waiting on her.

“Come here.” She wraps her arms around her daughter, in spite of the mud now surely getting onto her own clothes, and kisses the crown of Emily’s hair. “Go bathe and get changed. I love you.”

“I love you too!”

And Jessamine prays to herself, no matter what happens, as long as she’s around even the heir to the throne gets to jump into puddles every once in a while.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


	2. empress jessamine kaldwin reflects on her unapologetically queer daughter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You are free to choose and believe whatever you want Emily to be, but I prefer to think of her as more-or-less-pansexual with a predisposition towards feminine looks/bodies. Don't like it, don't read this.
> 
> Hope you enjoy if you do!

Jessamine Kaldwin has known for years before Emily tells her.

She remembers vividly when, on Emily’s seventh birthday, her daughter was kissed on both cheeks by some nobleman or another’s daughter. Bright, red spots of color had shimmered onto pale skin and curious, dark eyes had tracked the girl across the room for a little while after.

Then Emily had composed herself, but Jessamin had shared a fond glance and a private chuckle with Corvo, as always present in their shadows to make sure nothing happened to them. They had noticed.

She is well-aware of the crushes her daughter has had over the years, even if that daughter is as absurdly good at keeping things a secret as she is. Unforgettable is the time when she followed her tutor at the time, a young girl from the Academy, around the castle and came back to her room crying because she had seen her kiss some dumb, smelly boy.

“She’s supposed to teach _me_ , not him,” she had huffed, her mouth set in a sullen pout, and Jessamine had accepted that Emily wasn’t ready to tell her yet. All the same, she had pulled her daughter into her lap and rubbed her back soothingly until her sobs had subsided and she had fallen asleep for an impromptu nap.

It isn’t just girls, but predominantly so. Either way, Jessamine Kaldwin cares very little. It isn’t the gender or identity of a would-be suitor of her daughter that matters, but how adequate they are at making her happy.

Unfortunately, there isn’t any way to know who that might be except for Emily to keep trying until she hits on something (someone) that gives her the same kind of feeling that Jessamine found, at long last, with the man sworn to protect her.

She is quite certain Emily won’t go for someone that frowns as much as Corvo Attano, but one never knows and that’s the whole point of it. There are so many people out there and for Jessamine not to be open to all of them would be a big disservice towards her daughter.

“You can marry whoever you want to, dear,” she tells Emily when she asks.

Her eyes brighten up and she smiles the kind of slow, wide smile that she inherited from Corvo, whether that be through DNA or through constant exposure to him, and Jessamine feels so much love for her daughter in that moment that her vision blurs with very maternal tears.

Part of it might be that Emily then tells her, “Even if it’s another girl?” She is ten years old and so brave, to come out with this information while being the _crown princess_ , set to become the most watched, most _looked to_ person of all the realm.

“Even if it’s another girl,” Jessamine echoes, wiping at her eyes and mimic her daughter’s smile instead.

Emily hugs her and they smile together and she gets told all about a young Wyman, a person who chooses to be neither female nor male, just _Wyman_ , and who is the smartest person Emily has ever met and how cool is it that they know so much and how grand that they just dress in whatever they want, a dress one day and a suit the next, and how Wyman this and Wyman that.

“Emily told me today,” Jessamine says instead of greeting Corvo as she enters his chambers, linked to hers through a hidden door. “About her sexuality, and about Wyman.”

Corvo is leaning against the wall, the window in his back, and smiles his kind of slow, wide smile. “She told me _yesterday_.”

“Did she really?”

He nods. “She asked me for advice on how to break it to you.”

“What did you say?”

“That you would be happy any way she chose to do it.”

Jessamine joins him by the window, looking out over a city that will react very mixed about the news if it ever comes out. Her hand slides up against Corvo’s rough one, slender fingers slot between his calloused ones. But at least in Dunwall Tower, she will always have a safe home.

“I’m so proud of our daughter,” Jessamine whispers, looking out to the harbor and beyond. Corvo doesn’t have to say anything for her to know he is too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
